During Jeff Lyndon’s presentation on successfully launching and marketing your app in the Chinese market, I asked about the differences in in-app purchase promotiong and the difference between Asian and Western gamers. His answer was insightful.

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Jeff Lyndon, iDreamsky

With most publishers Jeff’s company iDreamsky will optimize the game’s source code.

The general observation being that Western developers take a fairly (more…)

2) The majority of phone data coverage is still mostly focused on 2G networks with expected growth in 3G and 4G network coverage.
growth from going to 3g, 4g

3) Growing sophistication of gamers.
With gamers typically in their 20s, having graduated from university, they would likely be used to making in-app purchases, especially since such purchase options have been present in MMOs since 2008.

–“Time on screen” strategy
The key metric for iDreamsky is the amount of time users spend on its games, rather than ARPU figures.

Jeff mentioned the network’s strategy is not to focus on how much money it makes from user, but rather how much time it can capture from the user.
With time being a limited resource, it is seen as more valuable while money spent can shift easily to other apps.

–The Chinese Opportunity
The following areas are growth areas in the Chinese market:1) Genre defining game – A genre-defining game like an Angry Birds or Temple Run, can establish itself, define and grow a segment in the market

–3) Increasing mobile broadband penetration.
With an expanding rollout in faster data networks, mobile gaming are set to exceed the current benchmarks.

iDreamsky select user stats:

On average an iPhone user 125mb of 3G data
and more than 3gb on wifi data

While an android user uses about
80-90mb of 3G data and more than
3GB on wifi

With high data transfer rates available on 4G networks there are opportunities to create bigger apps in the region of 200 megabytes or more, as well as richer graphics, more complex game physics.

This also opens possibilities for persistent games which require players to be online all the time, which becomes easier when they are not limited to small mobile broadband quota.

—— The challenge facing developers

“The Window is closing (for western developers)”.

2011-2013 was the window for Western developers to come into China, primarily due to the lower barriers to entry.
Since mid-2013 – the number of foreign games in China that have hit blockbuster status has decreased dramatically.

In Q1/2014 iDreamsky’s operation guys saw fewer games being ported to their platform from the US. Instead more games from Japan and Korea which require less localization and less reskin have been introduced on the iDreamsky platform.

Jeff’s advice if you want to go into China, you have to go this year. Unless you have a groundbreaking game like Candy Crush or Clash of Clans

–China: A gaming market like a “World War”
While Korea and Japan have gaming markets with content and games developed primarily by local developers, China presents a different picture.
A highly competitive market with at least 8 different countries jostling for market share, developers from the US, Europe, Japan and Korea are fighting for a slice of the China gaming pie.

China developers in particular have an innate advantage with their deeper understanding of developing compelling concept, smoother monetization funnels and a deeper understanding of the market

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During the short question and answer section, Jeff said that roleplaying games (RPG) and trading card games (TCG) are highly competitive categories and it would be difficult to establish a foothold.

Instead newer entrants can spot market gaps and go for games categories like racing titles, for which there is no major leader in the market now.

–Trademarks are another major area of contention.

If someone had already registered the trademark, for example Angry Birds, before Rovio decided to enter the market, and they had also made an Angry Birds clone and launched it, then it would be seen as the legitimate trademark owner by the Chinese government. Additionally, the recommendation is to trademark the Chinese version of your title.

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The maxim for the Chinese mobile gaming market according to Jeff is very Darwinian. There is no middle ground. You either make a lot or you make little/nothing.

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PS: I also had a question for Jeff about the difference in in-app purchasing behaviour between Chinese gamers and other gamers. His answers were very insightful and will follow in a later blog post.

The title of the presentation may have been long, but GameStop’s principal for business development, David Chiu, gave a wealth of stats that reinforced a lot of what you might have heard and know, but it also had some surprised that were backed up by data from stats from game portal Kongregate.

Hence, “Maximizing Player Retention and Monetization in Free-to-Play Games: Comparative Stats for Asian & Western Games” probably ranked as the best session for me on day 2 of Casual Connect Asia 2013 which was held in Singapore.

Some stats about Kongregate:

15 million monthly uniques

Core gamers are 85% male,

Average age of 21

Most popular game genres are MMO (massively multiplayer online), RPG (roleplaying games), (more…)

Mr Mori said that previously a game’s success had been often linked to a gaming platform, like Super Mario being linked to the Nintendo video game system and the Final Fantasy series and the Sony Playstation.

About Me

Hi, I’m Andrew Wee, an Asia-based internet marketer.I’ve been involved in the online world since 1997, having worked at one of Asia’s first content portals and helping to develop and project manage several content sites focused on verticals such as news, stocks, mutual funds and consumer/entertainment.Continue reading here